8-Year-Old Found Dead Inside Home in Central Maine

The State Medical Examiner’s Office says the eight year old boy found dead inside his Oakland home Tuesday night died from a gunshot wound to the head.

State Police said Parker Stevens was handling his father’s 12 gauge shotgun inside a closet of his parent’s second floor bedroom when the gun fired. Parker was found by his mother when she went to look for him about 6pm. She and her three other younger children were on the first floor of the house, located on Church Street, and did not hear the shot.

Parker is the son of Wade and Sara Stevens. The father was at work when the boy’s body was found and came home immediately. Parker was going into the fourth grade at the William’s Elementary School in Oakland.

Detectives said the Mossberg shotgun had eight shotgun shells in the gun’s magazine tube and the boy apparently racked one of those shells into the chamber before he fired the gun.